Why can’t China produce Einstein?--Reflections on Chinese Education

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-475-4_144How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Chinese education; creativity; educational reform

Abstract

This essay mainly explores some problems existing in China’s education system, that is, there are actually some structural limitations in cultivating students’ creativity and fostering world-class innovators within the Chinese education system. The discussion mainly revolves around the “Qian Xuesen problem”. This question is questioning why China has not produced a scientific pioneer like Einstein. By comparing the educational models of China and the West, and through comparisons in aspects such as classroom interaction, methods of evaluating students, and curriculum design, this paper finds out how the exam-oriented system in China inhibits students’ divergent thinking and its influence on Soviet educational theories and Confucian cultural traditions. This article also conducts a critical study on the philosophical ideas held in contrast to Dewey’s democratic education. According to Sawyer’s recent viewpoint, this article emphasizes that it is crucial to cultivate students’ ability to perceive things and think about problems in new ways. In the higher education stage, the professional structure is relatively rigid, and the individualized cultivation of students is also relatively weak. Such a situation restricts students’ academic freedom and their innovative potential. In recognition that China’s social and economic background will impose constraints on education, some gradual reform measures have been implemented. These include adopting diverse assessment methods, increasing investment in basic education, promoting maker education, and establishing pilot projects for cultivating research-oriented talents. These practical suggestions are aimed at striking a balance between the size of a country and its ambition to cultivate top talents and promote innovation.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Changrui Li
AU  - Jianhong Huang
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/11/11
TI  - Why can’t China produce Einstein?--Reflections on Chinese Education
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 10th International Conference on Modern Management, Education and Social Sciences (MMET 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1328
EP  - 1334
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-475-4_144
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-475-4_144
ID  - Li2025
ER  -